confessionsofwhat

…The moon, dwindled and thinned to the fringe ׀ of a finger-nail held to the...

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:19:00 -0400

…The moon, dwindled and thinned to the fringe ׀ of a finger-nail held to the candle…

…Or paring of paradisaïcal fruit, ׀ lovely in waning but lustreless…

…Stepped from the stool, drew back from the barrow…

…a fluke yet fanged him, ׀ entangled him, not quit utterly…

…Parted me leaf and leaf, divided me, ׀ eyelid and eyelid of slumber.

[…]

from hopkins moonrise

so its definitely the flu. i just read this: The curtain undulated. With the opium inhaled from a...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:09:00 -0400

so its definitely the flu.

i just read this:

The curtain undulated. With the opium inhaled from a makeshift porcelain-and-bamboo pipe crafted laboriously by Selz, it wasn’t long before the town, seen through the curtain, became a film of moving tissue, wrapping itself around Selz and Benjamin and at the same time unwrapping Ibiza, “We are curtainologists,” added Benjamin, to who it seemed as if the curtains had become interpreters for the language of the wind. Not the wind - but the language of the wind.

the panels will undulate, maybe not rolling but it could fold over itself at the bottom should i leave the swathes longer. i liked your thoughts on the curtain and agree that it is a painting that could become something else and therefore might avoid being so defined by that window. i wish the window opened. i think the silk will move by contact of the air of bodies. i have been hanging tests above the sliding door to the balcony and it is nice to see it move. it reminds me of the time i got high with ada and ben, we lay in her bed and watched the wind move the curtain, like the establishing shot of the white curtain waving in the breeze in visconti’s giaccopardo. only we were lying with our heads tilted up, watching the sun over the i set into a column.

a swatch is in the dyebath now, waiting to come out. in my flu haze i didn t realize the resist i m using washes out with water - duh - i need to use a wax for immersion dying….at any rate i will paint over the dyed black with black paint - black on black, charcoal tongue.

Figure 1. Jenny Kee (left) and Linda Jackson (right) in front of...

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:20:32 -0400

Figure 1. Jenny Kee (left) and Linda Jackson (right) in front of Sonia Delaunay’s Prisme Electrique (1914), Pompidou Centre, Paris, October 1977.

Photo

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:37:36 -0400

by mallarme, published in 1883 caught by the sad perfume, the...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:40:00 -0400

by mallarme, published in 1883

caught by the sad perfume, the grieving moon, the eyes on stones, and vapourous flowers

flasd: Feuillet, Origin of Eighteenth-Century Dance Notation or...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:29:10 -0400

flasd:

Feuillet, Origin of Eighteenth-Century Dance Notation or Choreography

Photo

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 01:07:10 -0400

Photo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:54:00 -0400

The pupil is not bare. It is a network of black canals which are...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:57:00 -0400

The pupil is not bare. It is a network of black canals which are most commonly arranged in three areas, three triangles.

- Michaux, The Parpue

There are so many animals, so many plants, so many minerals. And I have already been everything so many times. But these experiments don’t help me. Becoming ammonium hydrocholrate again for the thirty-second time, I still have a tendency to behave like arsenic, and, changed once more into a dog, my night-bird habits always show up.

- Michaux, And More Changes Still

(A transition into ancient perfume bottles and a Bee Fountain....

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:46:00 -0500

(A transition into ancient perfume bottles and a Bee Fountain. Originally from a book on Scallop motifs that I left behind in Guelph. Tore out these images and a few others. For example, of live scallops swimming and a composition with shells by Miro).

“Four scent bottles in the shape of a bow-tie made by...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:43:00 -0500

“Four scent bottles in the shape of a bow-tie made by Baccarat for Guerlain of Pairs. They contained a perfume called Dawamesk. It is typical of the period that a masculine design was used for an essentially feminine object. The pyjama suit or an exact copy of a man’s dinner jacket was fashionable evening wear for the flapper and this takeover of masculine fashion even found its way into toilet accessories. During the ‘twenties packaging received almost as much attention as the merchandise, especially where cosmetics and perfume were concerned. Baccarat, Lalique (who designed for Coty) and Sabino are a few of the most famous glass makers who designed scent bottles, probably causing the bottle to cost as much as the scent itself.”

Above the bow tie bottles is hand-printed silk, colours inspired by the Ballet Russes reminiscent at a glance to Delaunay.

A French bronze and ivory figure of a girl dancing and holding a...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:39:28 -0500

A French bronze and ivory figure of a girl dancing and holding a silver ball, signed “Lip”.

A chryselephantine sculpture (sculpture in ivory and precious metals) was one of the most popular ornaments in a ‘modern’ drawing room of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties. The base was usually elegantly shaped in different coloured marbles or in onyx.

Novelty necklaces made from “ordinary common or garden tap...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:35:08 -0500

Novelty necklaces made from “ordinary common or garden tap washers with big marble-like beads in any gay colour as a contrast - whoever could guess - ? to the most sophisticated Bauhaus-inspired all-aluminum jewellery. It was a comparative novelty that all this jewellery was unashamedly ‘false’.” The dancing figure from which the necklaces are hung is by the Austrian sculptor Lorenzl.

The woman’s lounge on the first mezzanine at Radio City...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:35:06 -0500

The woman’s lounge on the first mezzanine at Radio City Music Hall, New York. The painted wall decorations are by Yasuo Kuniyoshi.

Polished chromium hat stand made for the Italian firm of Bazzi...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:31:48 -0500

Polished chromium hat stand made for the Italian firm of Bazzi in Milan. Chromium became popular for all sorts of furniture an fittings in the twenties.

The two pieces above are from the...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:27:00 -0500

The two pieces above are from the “Wienerwerkstaette” by Hagenauer (c1925); one is a mirror with pewter frame, the other (reflected in the mirror) a free-standing group in polished chrome and ebony.

(Scans from a book on Art Deco I bought at High Browse Books in Kelowna a couple summers ago).

"But in France [women] seem more part of the centre of the culture, more accepted as necessary..."

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:51:57 -0500

“But in France [women] seem more part of the centre of the culture, more accepted as necessary fixtures in the history of thought. For example: a common brand of Dijon mustard, typical in every grocery store and pantry cupboard, comes in a re-useable water glass with a blue or green round bauble for a stem. The glass, my 76 year old neighbour tells me, is a copy of the stemware of Georges Sand. So Georges Sand’s stemware is part of the domestic vocabulary of French kitsch. Can we even begin to imagine the same with Emily Dickinson? Would her thimble arrive as the prize in a cereal box? Collect the set? Or Susanah Moodie? Who?”

- Journal, Day 1

Godlets on Freud’s desk, North London.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:37:59 -0500

Godlets on Freud’s desk, North London.

creaturesofcomfort: Shoe designed by Pablo Picasso and...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:57:58 -0500

creaturesofcomfort:

Shoe designed by Pablo Picasso and fabricated by Perugia, c. 1955.

Richard Fedoruk. You Can’t Get There From Here....

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:19:00 -0500

Richard Fedoruk. You Can’t Get There From Here. 1999

Emily’s father makes meticulous black and white drawings in his living room in New Westminister. The screen shot above shows one of many made between 1997-2009, all in this resolute/frequency.

This Christmas I went over to their house. He had quit drawing and decided to resume wood carving again. His first carving was a raven that Deb (his energic wife and poet) had commissioned. A Christmas gift for a friend.

There is a treasure chest of blob sculptures and paintings in their basement. I am obsessed with the ancient, gnarly pear trees in their back yard. Because of fog, I slept over in December and was lucky to see the black bark covered in frost crystals at sunrise.

A few years ago Emily gave me their last remaining copy of Casa Vogue. This one is from the late seventies. There is a great Memphis spread, and fantastical photos of marvelous villas and ranches, where money grows on trees. Before I could salvage the rest of the collection, Deb tossed the boxes - full - (weep!) into the recycling bin.